Oukitel is famous and notorious for its smartphones with middle-class hardware and oversized batteries: this is exactly what the new Oukitel K8000 stands for. It is obvious that nobody likes having to charge their mobile every day. Chinese manufacturers are currently putting on the market more and more devices, and their main focus is in fields such as dual cameras, 18:9 displays and “mix” style phones. It’s really good to hold a 5.5-inch 16:9 AMOLED display in your hand. Oukitel K8000 defines a new standard of battery life and, in the test with PCMark, manages to overcome even K10000. In our test, the device proved to have an incredible battery and is a valid member of the Oukitel’s K series.

If you are looking for an updated version of K5000, we recommend you to look at Oukitel K6.

Design / Build quality / Scope of delivery

Oukitel K8000 weighs 236g, is 156mm long, 76mm wide and 11mm thick. That sounds big, thick and heavy at first, but after 4 days you get used to it. Furthermore, you will be recompensed by an oversized 8000 mAh battery. Despite having 3 times the capacity of a normal 5.5-inch smartphone, the phone is not at all 3 times bigger or thicker. The entire body of the smartphone is made of metal, so the transition between the display and the frame of the device is perceptible. The display is protected by a plastic frame. The 2.5D glass of the display is slightly curved, giving a good visual and tactile impression. Two antenna lines at the top and bottom ensure good reception. The volume control buttons and the power button are on the right side and are also made of metal. They have good feedback and are quite stable. In addition, the power button is a little rougher and slightly marked in red. So it is recognizable both visually and to the touch: I would say perfect! We did not find any flaws in the build quality of this smartphone. The double camera protrudes half a millimeter from the casing and a small metal ring protects it from direct contact with the table.

At any rate, we could say this design is a “return to the origins”. We are no longer talking about an 18:9 display, but a 16:9 standard screen with a traditional home button and a fingerprint scanner located below the display. The fingerprint scanner cannot be physically pressed and can perform 3 different functions. In fact, it operates as home button, go-back button, and fingerprint scanner. The multitasking overview can only be opened via the on-screen buttons. It’s a 3-in-1 button instead of a 4-in-1 button. However, unlocking the phone with this fingerprint scanner is very quick and precise. In less than a second, Oukitel K8000 activates from the standby. The fingerprint scanner is very good, even if it is not excellent, as far as accuracy is concerned (8 times out of 10 successfully unlocked the display).

Above the display, there is an RGB notification LED. A headphone jack is located at the top of the smartphone and at the bottom you can find a microphone, two speakers and, unfortunately, an old Micro-USB port. In the SIM card slot on the left side, you can either use 2 Nano-SIMs or a Nano and a Micro-SD for memory expansion.

Oukitel K8000 actually offers everything you would expect from a smartphone. It is quickly ready for use thanks to its fingerprint scanner, despite the huge battery, it still is sufficiently compact and is simply excellent. The design is sober and without any noticeable elements. The only “flaw” is the 3-in-1 home button instead of a 4-in-1. Unfortunately, in this way, it is not possible to renounce completely to the on-screen buttons, which will be left visible on the display.

Oukitel K8000 scope of delivery

In addition to the charging adapter and charging cable, the package also includes an OTG plug, a silicone protective cover and an additional screen protector.

Display

Oukitel wants to break the record for battery life in our rankings and does everything it can to achieve it. So, in Oukitel K8000, we find an AMOLED display with low power consumption, with a very low pixel density of just 267 pixels per inch. In direct comparison with an AMOLED display of OP5T, we see a clear difference in the color representation: Oukitel shows rather cool colors. With MiraVision, however, you can partially correct this defect and adjust it to your liking. You will find it in the settings menu. Generally, AMOLED displays’ colors are very strong and not too realistic. The display is still sharp enough to read even small texts. The black values are perfect and therefore, the display seems really black and the viewing angle stability is also okay.

The display recognizes a maximum of 10 touches simultaneously. Moreover, it is protected from scratches by a Dragontrail Glas. The display surface is pleasantly smooth and reacts to inputs quickly and accurately. However, fingerprints are always visible. If you are not used to a razor-sharp high-end display, you will be completely satisfied with Oukitel. In favor of the battery life, the “only” HD display is probably an acceptable compromise.

Performance and operating system

Oukitel K8000 is powered by a MediaTek MT6750. This processor is the first choice for most of the phones with a large battery since the majority of Chinese manufacturers do not use the Snapdragon 625 chip. The Octa-core processor consists of 8 Cortex-A53 cores, divided into two clusters. The first cluster with 4×1,5GHz and the other with 4×1.0GHz for energy savings. The 28-nanometer production is not really beneficial for the battery life and not truly up to date. For everyday standard tasks, the speed of the device is sufficient, and thanks to its system based on Android 7, Oukitel K8000 runs smoothly. The T860 GPU is also perfect for any type of games; only with most demanding 3D games we had some problems. With Asphalt 8 you have to reduce the graphics for a smooth gaming experience. The 4GB of RAM offer a good multitasking abilty and there are also 64GB of storage available. The RAM speed is 4GB/s and the internal storage’s reading and writing speed is 143/146MB/s.

Oukitel changed the icons of the system a little bit, but the quick start menu and the options menu remain at least visually the same. Under Smart Assistants, you will find additional options such as the gesture control or a one-handed mode.

Malwarebytes confirms a clean system free of bloatware or malware or other security problems. Android 7 is not the most up-to-date operating system, but it’s still able to offer us features like the split-screen, which runs smoothly on K8000. Updates are available directly via OTA, although you should not hope for an Android O update (… but who knows!?). The current system runs on Oukitel K8000 smoothly and without errors. In the 10 days in which I tested the phone, I was never disappointed.

Camera

Oukitel K8000, like almost all Chinese smartphones at the moment, has a dual-camera. The main camera has a 13-megapixel sensor with an aperture of f/1.8. The second sensor has 2 megapixels and is absolutely useless. If you try to shoot photos with bokeh effect, the result will be a horribly blurred circle around the subject of the photo. And if you cover the lens of the second camera, the result does not change, you will only get a notification that invites you to remove the finger.

The main camera shoots interpolated photos to 16 megapixels. As long as there is enough light, the pictures will be acceptable. The camera app offers all sorts of settings and modes such as Face-beauty, Bokeh, Black and White, Panorama and even a Mode-Pro (although it is a bit limited: we can only change the ISO values, white balance, and brightness). Of course, shots with HDR are also possible, but the pictures are often overexposed and certainly not better.

The pictures taken in sufficient light conditions are not bad but the colors are not very intense. The sharpness decreases towards the edges, but when compared to other 150$- smartphones, it is still on average. What bothers me however is that pictures are partly overexposed.

HDR

Flashlight

The front camera has an 8-megapixel Omnivision OV8856 sensor. Even in this case, the photos are interpolated to 13 megapixels, although this time the quality is not that bad. The dynamic range and sharpness are not perfect, and the color representation varies depending on the light conditions. However, we mostly managed to take pretty good selfies to send to friends and relatives.

All in all, Oukitel K8000’s camera is not surprising, but it is not a disaster either. Look at the test images we’ve taken and decide for yourself if the quality is sufficient for your needs.

Connectivity and communication

Oukitel K8000 perfectly supports all of the most important frequencies: 2G, 3G, and 4G (LTE), including band 20. With this phone, we had total support without problems and also the reception was at a very high level. On the other hand, however, the voice quality is not the best. During the test phase, it happened 3 times that I inadvertently activated the speakerphone with the cheek while I was calling (the proximity sensor does not work very well apparently) and also during calls there were continuous disturbances, which made it difficult for the interlocutor to understand me. Nevertheless, I could always hear my interlocutor very clearly.

The n-Standard WIFI module works well with 2.4 GHz networks with a good reception and maximum transfer speed (at least for my 50mBit line). In theory, 5 GHz networks are also supported, but during our test, the smartphone has regularly preferred 2.4 GHz networks, as the reception of 5 GHz networks was always too weak. The Bluetooth 4.2 module works without problems. In addition, GPS reception is sufficient for car navigation, but it is not the best for pedestrian navigation. The compass is not precise at all, even after trying several times to calibrate it.

In addition to the standard sensors (proximity, acceleration, and brightness) we also find a gyroscope. The internal speaker is not the best one but it still has a good quality. Bass is not rendered adequately, while highs are reproduced in a clear and pleasant way.

Battery

As the name suggests, the highlight of Oukitel K8000 is the 8000 mAh battery. This guarantees the best battery life I have ever experienced on a smartphone. Only after 4 days of continuous use, (and 13.5 hours of DOT, time with active display) the smartphone has turned off. During the last 10% of the battery, the super-energy-saving mode is activated, which adds from 5 to 10 hours of phone calls to the battery life. In addition, there are also other settings in the system that increase battery life. For example, you can invert colors, which sets a black background with white text. Not everyone will like this feature, but it will certainly help lengthening the battery life, especially with an AMOLED display.

Battery lifetime ResultUnit: hours

The charging time is just as good as the battery life, considering the battery size. With the charging adapter included in the package, Oukitel K8000 is fully charged after only 2.5 hours. With the included USB OTG adapter, you can also charge other devices with the smartphone. In the PCMark Battery Test, Oukitel K8000 is now the new front-runner with an incredible 19-hours runtime.

Conclusion and alternative

Jonas Andre:

The strengths of Oukitel K8000 are quickly named. </ Strong> A sturdy and high-quality appearance in combination with a simply unique battery life. The Android 7 system is clean and fast enough for any normal user. It is possible to take good selfies and WIFI, Bluetooth, and network reception pose no problems. Although the GPS determines the position exactly, as a pedestrian, the compass is, unfortunately, hard to use because it almost always points in the wrong direction. Also the proximity sensor does not always work perfectly when calling. In addition, the voice quality is not quite as good as with most other smartphones. The main camera is slightly below average of the 150$ price range and the dual camera is obviously useless. On the other hand, the cold AMOLED display, which presents good sharpness even without FHD resolution, surprised me positively.

Finally, you have to set your own priorities! I really liked the enormous battery life in the test phase </ strong>. The fingerprint scanner is sometimes a bit capricious, but it mostly works reliably and quickly. Oukitel is undoubtedly a good smartphone but also has several weaknesses. As always, Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X should be mentioned as an alternative, although it has a slightly weaker battery life, it makes almost everything else better. If battery life is your first priority and you have no problems with a fat and heavy piece of metal, then buy Oukitel K8000. </ strong>

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